Is the US preparing to sell out to Hamas?

The US government is reportedly trying to loosen restrictions on aid money so it can aid a Palestinian government that includes the Hamas terrorist group. Israeli consternation was met by ominous doubletalk:

 

Officials in Jerusalem were surprised by a report in the L.A. Times Monday that the Obama administration has asked Congress to amend U.S. law to enable the Palestinian Authority to receive federal aid even if Hamas joins a unity coalition.

 

"Every step that strengthens Hamas only distances peace. In the event that the report is true, it is painful and worrying," a political source in Jerusalem said Monday.

 

Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' forces in a bloody 2007 coup, has been deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. and therefore cannot not legally receive U.S. government aid.
 
Israeli officials are still attempting to ascertain the intentions of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration. Initial messages relayed to Jerusalem from Washington said there would be no change in policy, only a change in the language used with reference to a Palestinian unity government.

Hamas does not recognize the right of Israel to exist. Actually that's an understatement. Hamas insists that their mission is to murder all the Jews, who are guilty, among other crimes, of starting the French Revolution and the Soviet Revolution. Hamas  seized power from Fatah in Gaza in a bloody coup, taking from Fatah all the US military equipment that had been supplied to them. Aid money to Hamas would be used to entrench their rule in Gaza and import weapons. The US had promised that no aid voted for reconstruction of Gaza would go to the Palestinians unless and untill Hamas changed its ways. Why was the promise made if there was no intention to keep it? Why is it necessary to change the language if there is no change in policy?   What does it mean: "A change in language, but not a change in policy?" Mr. President, do they get the money or don't they get the money? Never mind the language!

 

The plot thickens - because Mahmoud Abbas said that the organizations that compose a unity government do not have to accept the principles of that government - such as recognition of Israel.

Alluding to the dispute over whether the Palestinian government should recognize Israel and abide by past Palestinian agreements, Abbas noted that "forces don't need to accept what the government accepts, and we say that the government has to accept the international legitimacy."

A mean battle may be shaping up, or it may be yet another tempest in a teapot.

 

Ami Isseroff